Maharashtra constable shoots dead criminal after being knifed

History-sheeter Govind Rana was spotted by Crime Branch officials in Maharashtra’s Palghar who asked him to surrender. But Rana allegedly attacked constable Mangesh Sakpal with a knife following which the latter opened fire from his service revolver.

A history-sheeter was shot dead in Maharashtra’s Palghar district on Monday after he allegedly resisted arrest and attacked a police constable with a knife, a senior official said.

While history-sheeter Govind Rana was declared dead on arrival at hospital, constable Mangesh Sakpal is recovering. (Photo for representation)

Govind Rana was spotted on Monday afternoon in Tulinj area in Nallasopara township of Palghar district, about 60 kilometres from Mumbai, by a local Crime Branch team which asked him to surrender, Manjunath Singe, Superintendent of Police, Palghar told PTI.

Rana, however, attacked constable Mangesh Sakpal with a knife following which the latter opened fire from his service revolver, Singe informed. An injured Rana was rushed to a nearby hospital where doctors declared him dead on arrival, the SP added.

Constable Sakpal has been admitted to a nearby hospital where doctors have said that his condition was fine, the official added.

Rana was previously arrested in suburban Kandivali in an Arms Act case in 2014 and also has another case registered against him in Worli police station, an official said. Officials said this is the first encounter in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region carried out by the state police since 2010.

These officials claimed that alleged gangster Mangesh Narkar’s was the last police encounter which took place in suburban Chembur in October 2010.

An encounter which took place on February 7, 2016 in Andheri, in which alleged gangster Sandeep Gadholi was killed, was carried out by a police team from Gurgaon in Haryana, officials added.